Hungry and humble, Isaac Romero loves his way to the front at Sevilla

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December 2023, the day before a match, and the manager of a team in the fourth tier in Spain gathers his squad. He reminds them of the plan – the bus will leave at 6am for an 11.30am kick-off 230km away, stopping to pick up players along the way – and turns on a video. He counts every goal scored by an opposition striker: 11 out of 13 games and, the centre-back soon realizes, not one of them is a tap-in. Instead, Isaac Romero, the conductor of Sevilla B up there on the screen, does them all himself. “Unreal, really unreal,” recalls the defendant. “You could say he had to be in the first team, and that’s what happened. It’s on fire.”

That makes it sound easy, but it wasn’t. “I never imagined this,” says Isaac. That morning he played in front of a few hundred people and didn’t score. The next time he scored, it was 12,581. The time after that, 13,092. And a week later, when he controlled his chest, turned, stuck it through the legs of an Osasuna defender and curled a perfect finish into the corner, 36,640 people went wild. This Saturday, as he left after 85 exhausting minutes after barreling around the pitch and beating Real Sociedad, the Sánchez Pizjuán stood to applaud him and sing the name of his unexpected new hero.

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Things have changed for him, and for them. December was Isaac’s penultimate game for Sevilla Atlético, the club’s B team. Two days earlier, Mallorca had beaten the first team: it was Sevilla’s ninth game in a row without a win and, a week later, they made it 10 when they were beaten 3-0 by Getafe, slipping to to 17th, level on points with. 18th Isaac’s last game for Sevilla Atlético was against El Palo in January. Five days later, he was given his first team game at Alavés, immediately followed by two goals against Getafe in the cup, one against Girona, that belt against Osasuna in the home opener, and the winner against Atlético Madrid. He has yet to play 90 minutes, but has five goals and an assist in his first seven games.

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On Saturday he provided another assist as Sevilla beat Real Sociedad 3-2 to move seven points clear of the bottom three, survival almost intact. The team that has not been able to win the 10 has just lost once in six – against Real Madrid, when Isaac’s volley that could have won was saved by Andriy Lunin – and, according to Diario de Sevilla, the man most of them hadn’t heard of a month or so ago is the “soul” of the team. He is also a little special, a natural finisher with something pure, unrefined about him, a player who says Diego Costa was his idol, crashing into everyone and defeating everything, giving “my own until I can’t to give any more”. He is, insists his manager Quique Sánchez Flores, for example, the footballer is changing the entire team: “a path for each of them to follow.”

It was not in the most natural way, just: not only thisThe B team kid makes an impact in the first team, especially since Isaac is not a child at all. He is the son of a footballer and a World Cup winner on his side, 23 but too good for Segunda B.

This could not be predicted. Nor could anyone else. If Isaac had his way this summer, he would probably be playing in the second division; Had it not been for the problems with the paperwork this winter, the club’s failure to find leaders to sort things out, he would probably still be playing in fourth place. This is another case study to find the odds, sure, but also in fortune, good and bad, and football has the ability to somehow get.

Romero was born in Lebrija, a town of 27,432 people, 60km (37 miles) south of Seville, where his grandparents moved in the late 1970s when the marshes along the left bank of the Guadalquivir were drained to create arable land and a place which he still was. lives. His father, Antonio, played for Atlético Sanluqueño, reached the second division with Xerez, and became a caretaker at the local team Atlético Antoniano. His mother, Macarena, runs the bar at the club. And Isaac played for them too, helping them get promoted from regional andalusia to Spain tercera department. This season he was playing against them in Segunda B. He lost 2-0 and did not score. Now he has scored against Girona and Atlético and he was at the Bernabéu.

By the time he helped raise Antoniano, Isaac had been to Seville and Cádiz and back. He joined Sevilla as a child but left when they changed to 11-a-side. He spent 18 months at Cádiz, but that didn’t work out either: it was far from home. At 19, he was back playing for Antoniano but his coach Francisco José Cordero, who saw him grow and fill out and moved to center forward, remained convinced that he could do it and called Sevilla . Carlos Marchena, assistant coach of Sevilla Atlético, did not go to see him play; 39 and recently retired, a former World Cup winner who still came into every session and has a passion for football, Marchena went and played against him. He laid in Isaac, turning training into a proper examination. At the end, he was lying too.

Coming from regional, amateur football aged 19, Isaac was a latecomer, although there was something about his development that made him different. It was 2018 and he first joined Sevilla C, progressing to the B team, but he had recurring shoulder problems, suffered a broken leg, and time ran out. This summer, he joined the first team in preseason. But José Luis Mendilibar needed a proven, professional player. It was not as if Romero could be used from time to time either: because he was 23 years old, if he entered the first team, he must be permanent: he was too old for his team Register B and keep both sides on both sides. So Sevilla signed Mariano Díaz instead. There were no squad slots left.

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Isaac was about to leave permanently – the second division Albacete wanted him – only Sevilla’s sporting director, Victor Orta, was to convince him and his father to stay, preaching patiently. But even when he arrived in the winter window, Flores made it very clear in public that he no longer had any faith in strikers Mariano or Rafa Mir, who have just five league starts and two goals between them, with Fernando’s departure letting up. to add another player, it was unlikely to be Isaac.

Where fortune intervenes. The transfer of Robert Bozenik from Boavista fell through, even after undergoing a medical, and then the attempt to get David Datro Fofana, which seemed to be all done, collapsed because his limit for foreign loans achieved by Chelsea. Those weren’t the only deals that couldn’t be done. Rafa Mir and Mariano were still around but maybe not – “you reach the level or you don’t play”, said Flores, claiming that “some people interpret demands differently”. Youssef En-Nesyri was at the African Cup of Nations, Lucas Ocampos had to play as a false nine, and the team was in crisis. And so it happened: there were 26 minutes against Alavés, and then the explosion.

A new idol landed, but he was there for life.

Celta Vigo 1-0 Almería, Valencia 2-2 Real Madrid, Getafe 3-3 Las Palmas, Rayo Vallecano 1-1 Cádiz, Sevilla 3-2 Real Sociedad, Athletic Bilbao 0-0 Barcelona, ​​Real Mallorca 1-0 Girona , Atlético Madrid 2-1 Real Betis, Villarreal 5-1 Granada

“We didn’t find anyone; we saw the kids in training and we picked, that’s all,” says Flores. “I like Isaac because he does everything you ask him to do. It fills us with energy. We are lucky to have him with us and he is so humble that he will get even better. It is a lesson in humility for the whole group. It makes you emotional to see young people there. We were young once. The coach opens a door, but they are the ones who do things; they are amazing.”

“He gave Sevilla hunger; the team needed that and it has proven to be contagious,” insisted former manager Joaquín Caparrós. He is, says Diego Simeone, “everything a coach looks for.” Spanish manager Luis de la Fuente describes him as “a kid I really like”. Everyone does. Life with Isaac is “comfortable” for all of them, En-Nesyri admitted this weekend and for him in particular. Redeemed by the boy from Lebrija, they have built an impressive partnership since Morocco’s return to Afcon, a headline sums it up on Sunday morning: “What a pair up front at Sevilla!”

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“More than just a good player, Isaac is a good teammate, a good boy, very humble, very tough and in the end people like that are lucky,” says midfielder Óliver Torres. “He has waited for his moment: he is helping us and I hope he can continue to help us for a long time. We will be there to hug him every time he scores. The truth is than it is a great discovery for all.”

Well, almost everyone. Back in December, some defenders already knew: they had seen Isaac Romero right there on their screens.